Switching over to a schedule

Question
Hi Labman!
I have a 6 month old Pomeranian girl. I got her from a pet store (I know, very bad to buy animals from there) because she was obviously not being cared for by the store. I had stopped in multiple times over the course of a month, and I watched her health steadily decline (weight loss, lack of energy, big goopy tear stains, loss of fur luster). At one point she was gone (initially I thought she had been sold) but the people there said she went to the pet hospital and almost died... of starvation! They said she refused to eat. Well, I fell in love with her, and I knew I wanted to make her better... so I took her home. She was very underweight (only 2 lbs at 4 months). I knew she needed to put on weight, and I knew that I had to keep her sugar up- so I have been free-feeding her. She has more than doubled in size now, she's a perfect weight, and very healthy. However, she's a very assertive little dog. I read that in cases of such commanding little personalities, it is important to have control over your dog's food in order to establish dominance/control. My question is... is it too late to change to scheduled meal times? And, if I can begin a routine, how many times/how much should I feed her in order to keep her sugar up and her weight a healthy level?

Answer
Try to figure out how much she is eating a day.  Evaluate her using http://www.longliveyourdog.com/twoplus/RateYourDog.aspx  Give her about half what she should need twice a day this way:

Put down the dish with what the dog should eat, and give it 15 minutes to eat. Then take it up. Do not give it anything to eat until its next scheduled meal.

Obedience training would be a big help too.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts.  Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/  For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm